h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That is funny about Hopefully your colleagues found it pleasing - I do like it when cats join in My pet is a soft toy, so only joins in when I help - made an appearance quite recently when a meeting got to talking about pets joining in

That is good that you always have plenty of ideas for crossword clues - looks forward to next time (or could lead to the prize for completing a Christmas Crossword being a Christmas Crossword to complete )

Weather-wise we were lucky that the roads had chance to dry off before the cold weather drew in, so there is not as much ice as there would otherwise have been There was certainly a lot more precipitation overnight, though so there's a couple of inches of snow. I'm glad not to have had to go out in it this morning, as my ramp would have been thick with it, but a bit of sun has melted the paths quite nicely

I plan to go out this evening for our usual November Christmas Dinner. I saw the seating plan this lunchtime, and I'll be on a different table from last year, but it will be good to chat with different people for a change (and I'm sure some mingling will take place so I can say hello to the people I sat on a table with last year )

It is indeed fun when pets join in. As we had a new record system, there were several training videos made (I did a few too) in which colleagues give recorded Teams presentations demonstrating what to do, and sometimes pets join in on these. There was one I remember in which we were told to look out for a specific time stamp, as a senior and very po-faced member of staff who was giving the presentation was interrupted by her little jumping up and licking her face, which was hilariously unexpected.
Still funny with captions on, especially as the captions never did realise the name of our uni.

I hope you had a good Christmas Dinner and mingled with a friendly assortment of people.

There's been vaguely amusing Christmas song news yesterday that had it happened last week, I'd've tried to sneak into the crossword, so I might well make a doodle about it instead. Today's the staff quiz after work, though, so no time to doodle tonight.

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In other news, our bin's not been emptied for a fortnight now...

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Oh no, not again Good luck with that

Ah - that is cute about little being recorded for posterity!

Yes, the Christmas Dinner was quite good. The food wasn't as good as last year, but I think there was some sort of problem in the kitchen, so they did their best. The starters went OK, but the main course had trouble. One table was served, but the plates were sent back almost immediately. We were on the last table, so the people on the first table had finished before we were served. My vegetables were overcooked, and someone else on my table had undercooked vegetables so it was definitely a mixed bag.

The company was good, though - I met someone I've seen around, but never really spoken to. She always came across as quite po-faced, but once she relaxed and got chatting, she was so funny - she would say something eg about her meal, and then she would spontaneously blow a raspberry It turned into a fun party game to say, 'What do you think of such-and-such?' *raspberry* . 'How about abc?' so she kept us all amused!

I did get to mingle, and the people I sat next to last year said they missed me at the table (I suspect one or two of the people who joined them instead were more talkative so other people would have struggled to get a word in edgeways, whereas our conversations had flowed quite well). Was quite cold outside - took me a while to shift the snow off the car before I went out, but I had fun making a snow person After the dinner it was a bit frosty on the windscreen, but not too bad.

I missed the vaguely amusing Christmas song news yesterday. Good luck with the quiz

In good news, our recycling bins have been emptied! We still have very overflowing rubbish bins, though. Our neighbours contacted them to complain, which meant that when I got home after the quiz, there were wheelie bins in the unlit alley behind our house all over the place for me to dodge in the dark....

Sounds like you had an enjoyable evening, even if it was a mixed bag of veg. And your acquaintance turning out to be the Phantom Raspberry Blower!

Our team came second in the quiz yesterday out of about 15, so that was very good and I believe an enjoyable time was had by all - well, in our team any way... We were doing well and ahead of the team that won, but had a disastrous music round. All the songs were obscure, though, including one that apparently only got to number 47 in the charts(!)

Today we had very brief snow, hurray! Obviously it didn't settle, but it was amusing seeing the kittens looking out the window to see it for the first time. Milo kept jumping up at the window to try and catch some when it got nearby. I'm impressed that you've managed to have snow already, and enough to actually do something with, rather than it just float in the air.

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I should have said that you helped us get a point. The theme was 'School's Out' so many of the questions were school themed. One round was fictional schools with the question, 'Which novel contains Lowood Institution?' and I knew from subbing your entry it was Jane Eyre. No-one believed me, saying that Jane's a governess, but I forced them to accept my answer, and lo and behold I was right!

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Yay! You've helped me with quizzes, too, as I've learned about TV and films that I've not seen, for example

Congratulations on second place - not bad at all. Shame about the music round, though - I'm amazed that the other team did better than you on the obscure songs, as you do have a broad range of interests... Anyway, glad it was enjoyable overall

Glad at least some bin emptying took place, but hopefully the other bins will be sorted very soon

Coincidentally I've just discovered our recycling bins weren't emptied this week - last Friday the council website said they would be emptied on Monday 18 November, and this week the website says they will be emptied on Monday 25 November, along with the rubbish bins (even though the cycle is usually for recycling to be emptied one week, and rubbish the next) Hopefully it will go ahead as planned this time

"your acquaintance turning out to be the Phantom Raspberry Blower!" - aha!

Yes, it was unusual for so much snow to land here, as we are usually sheltered by the rivers on each side. I was glad to have some fun with it while it lasted I can imagine the snow falling was exciting to the kittens!

I hope you all have a good weekend. I'm not sure what I'll be doing, apart from hopefully doing some charity shopping. The RSPB are struggling with finances and volunteers, so Burton Mere is not going to be fully open on Sunday I'll keep a lookout for birdwatching opportunities anyway

Good luck with your bins - and I hope all the strong wind doesn't blow them over and the contents everywhere....
I hope you survived the storm in all other ways too.

Lots of 40th Anniversaries coming up - 40 years since Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' tomorrow. I did think seriously about writing an entry about the song and the controversy that has arisen, but we do have A447266... And 8th December is the 40th anniversary of classic 'The Box of Delights', which paved the way for a decade of classic children's television.

Which reminds me, I'd better start writing Christmas cards...

Otherwise no news here - I've been a tad under the weather so not done much, and parkrun was cancelled yesterday due to the storm.

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No recycling bin emptying took place here today Not surprised, as the rubbish bins did get emptied in accordance with the usual cycle, so it would have been weird if the recycling bins had been emptied on the same day. However, it does mean I can't guess when the council will remember the recycling bins exist... I will give them a call tomorrow and see if they can see what's going on

That is a good Entry about Live Aid etc. Would be interesting to consider the new version separately through the lens of the controversy, but it is a challenging topic - interesting article here http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/oct/10/live-aid-led-to-the-patronising-save-africa-industry-we-dont-need-a-musical-about-it about how there are roots in colonialism.

Not surprising parkrun was cancelled with all the rain... I hope you're feeling better today We were quite lucky with the weather - lots of puddles on the road, but not too wet for charity shopping (I gave a bundle of items, and they went on sale before I'd even left the shop, so they were definitely appreciated ).

Also quite lucky yesterday - I did go to Burton Mere, and it was very quiet bird-wise as well as people-wise - the staff had done some reed clearing on the main scrape so the birds had mostly moved away, except for a few ducks. I did a tour of a couple of other sites where I can use the car as a hide and didn't add any new species to the list, but did enjoy seeing a kestrel, egrets, etc

I've taken on the challenge of polishing up Career Curiosities, as I've been booked to give a talk about careers for International Day of Disabled People Not easy indeed tidying up the text and brightening the images, but I'm getting faster as I go along

I must admit I've not been out the back since last week so I've not seen if any bins have been emptied - not overly optimistic considering the recent performance. I hope you hear regarding your bins soon

Sorry to hear that Burton Mere has been quiet following the reed clearing, but good that you did at least see kestrel and egrets and ducks, oh my. Good to hear that you've donated appreciated - and hopefully soon sold - things to charity.

I'm intrigued to hear about your polishing up of Career Curiosities - which I see is for next week, so I hope you're making good progress with that. Especially as it was drawn on lined paper. Keep me informed on how that goes!
On a related note, one trick I've learnt today is how effective a black background can be at making something look more stylish than it really is. I see you've spotted my Scrooge doodle. This is just two characters talking, both in simple grey clothing - a dark grey robe in the Ghost's case and light grey nightshirt, plus hat, in Scrooge's. There's no background, the ground itself is white to represent snow. Yet despite this lack of much colour, I think the cartoon itself works much better than it really should - and this is because the black brings it to life somehow. So maybe if you can't brighten the image, will darkening the background work instead?

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I called the council, and they assured me the recycling was collected yesterday I eventually managed to explain the situation, so I am somewhat hopeful that the bins might be emptied tomorrow, but I won't be surprised if not Good luck to you, too

Fortunately the talk is not on the day itself, so I have a few more days to polish Career Curiosities. It is going quite well so far, though. The margins on the old book were bigger than necessary, so it makes a difference for the margins to be smaller and the images to be bigger. It also looks better when there is a border round each image. I used Gamma Correction in photoshop to darken the text and brighten up the people. I've been touching up by hand where the lines are faint, eg when I was writing over the silhouette of a previous drawing. It still won't look like a properly professional printed book, but it certainly looks a lot clearer than the first attempt

I'm very impressed with the way you add black backgrounds - makes the images look much crisper indeed I love the snowflakes, too - clever how the blue outline turns into softness against the black (at first I thought you used a soft brush in photoshop to add the dots)

I'm on tenterhooks over whether or not you have emptied bins - I can confirm that we've had our recycling bins emptied this week - hurray!

I've not used Gamma Correction - I tend to use the Burn tool to emphasise the outline of characters or anything I want emphasised and to stand out from the background - and of course as I replace mu handwriting with typed text now, I don't need to darken the text. But I'm the first to admit I don't know more than a small fraction of what Photoshop can do, so there may well be many better methods.

The snowflakes are blue just because I used a blue pen to draw the snow dots in the original picture - which remains white on the paper, as I selected and inverted to turn the background black.

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Hurray indeed - we had our recycling bins emptied today Very strange that the system was disrupted for you and me, but lucky that the councils managed to sort themselves out relatively quickly this time

Aha, yes the Burn tool wouldn't work as well with the lined paper. Yes, photoshop is very powerful, but I don't know more than a small fraction of what it can do, either. It was a bit of trial and error to see what worked for what I had in mind - might not be the best option, but it's doing the job

I had a lot of meetings today. One was a session to convey information, but left people with more questions than answers. Another one was a session I was invited to so people could ask me questions, but one person had a very big list of concerns dating back 5 years - I managed to say a few words in response to some of the concerns, but I think it could have gone better... I can send a written update to the next session, anyway! The third and fourth ones were more interactive, so that was good.

It was frosty this morning, but overall pleasant bright weather I hope it was similar for you

Well, if you've managed to find the tools that help you get the results you want, that sounds like you can solve the problem, even if other solutions are available.

Sounds like you had a variety of different meetings, rather than the same meeting over and over

Yes, the weather here today has also been cold and sunny - it is getting too cold to comfortably use the bathroom first thing in the morning, alas...

Not much to report here, other than my seeing the Mediaeval Baebes is only a week away, hurray!

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Yes indeed, if the outcome is good, then taking a different path to get there is not a problem I'm making good progress - nearly finished with the pages of black text, so it is just the Building Blues section with blue text to look at next

Yes, that is a plus point - the meetings might have been mixed, but at least there was variety

I went to the new dentist and did indeed have a better experience, as there was more patience to try different paths to get to the required outcome of information-gathering, and that worked. The next appointment will be more challenging, but I feel more confident of being treated well, as they set aside plenty of time rather than rushing people.

That is sad about the bathroom - one might expect that in a caravan, but not usually in a house Tricky with extensions, more open to the elements than the main body of the house...

Are you going to the festival this weekend? I'm sorry I couldn't go again this year, as the end of November has been a busy time, but I'm sure everyone will have a good day

Ooo - exciting that the Mediaeval Baebes event is coming up soon

Almost December - I've got the 'Olde English Christmas' CD next to me as I type waiting for tomorrow. No Christmas before December

Glad that you're making progress
And also good news you've had a better experience at the dentist - I hope that continues.

My wife was at the with the puppet group - the timing didn't work out for me in getting to it after having returned from parkrun and washing, so I'll have to catch the next one.

The keep stealing my packs of mints. I have mints in winter as I find they help with breathing, but there's something about them that the kittens can't resist...

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That is interesting that are interested in packs of mints - I would have thought the smell would be too strong for their sensitive noses...

Glad parkrun was able to take place, and I trust your wife had a good time at festival

Definitely mixed weather at the moment, with sunny spells in between torrential rain. Burton Birdwatching was quite good yesterday, as it was warm and bright, but I didn't get far because the path down to the lower end of the reserve was flooded again after overnight rain. I did add Whooper Swans to my list, though, so I'm now up to 99 species

I hope you enjoyed your 'Olde English Christmas' start to December

Oh, and I managed to finish Career Curiosities ahead of schedule
http://www.lulu.com/shop/sasha-quentin/career-curiosities/paperback/product-d2yy8e.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Not easy to replicate the old cover template, but I am pleased with how it turned out. I've ordered the proof copy, and am hopeful it will be much clearer

I looked online and people have said that the smell of mint overlaps with catnip, if so that would explain why they love the smell and steal my packets. Mind you, they'd steal anything. They love interacting with anything, but so far have left the reasonably well alone and not tried to climb it, although we have only got lights in it and not risked anything fragile.

99 species, eh? That gives you a month to spot any winter birds you missed at the start of the year, so you're well on track to get your century in.

And it sounds like the mixed weather has been a blessing as far as 'Career Curiosities' goes, so you've managed to finish ahead of schedule. I hope it all turns out well.

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Ah, yes and there is cat mint as well, so that does make sense. Good idea to use non-fragile decorations on just in case - my sister's first cat loved to bounce on the branches, but her most recent clowder isn't that bothered (although they will sleep underneath it as it is in a warm corner).

The Rotary Christmas trick-or-treaters were sneaky this year - I heard the music going up the main road, so I assumed they wouldn't be visiting my street (as they didn't last year). However, they sneakily sent the music one way and the lights came down my street. They rang the doorbell, even though my room lights were off (although maybe they saw the light of the computer) but they didn't hammer on the door like they did the other year, thankfully, and they went away quite quickly.

Yes, 99 species is pretty good - I'm hoping I might see an owl within the next couple of weeks, as there have been a few around, and I might see birds like Jays eating seeds and berries

Yes, I did get into a good routine of polishing Career Curiosities, so it was pleasing. Now I need to polish the presentation - luckily the presenter mentioned she is going to do an introduction, so I have changed my introduction to avoid repetition

And your Christmas card arrived nice and promptly as usual - it gets pride of place on the mantlepiece as it is the first to arrive I look forward to doing the crossword